RANGELY I For the last few days, we have been making beef jerky. It was a lot of fun! We were each given about 10 pieces of beef. We had to marinade it with a certain “Hawaiian” marinade, then we were allowed to add additional seasonings to our meat! Debbie Smith, our club leader, encouraged us to use whatever type of seasonings we would like. When Colt Allred heard about this he went crazy with the cayenne pepper! Most of the club members used teriyaki seasoning and a few members just used salt and pepper. After we seasoned our meat we had to allow it to marinate in the refrigerator over night. The next day we all went to Kyle Wren’s house to use his dehydrator. He showed us how to load and use the dehydrator. Since not everyone wanted cayenne pepper on their jerky, Colt had to put his on the very bottom tray to avoid dripping cayenne pepper all over everyone else’s meat. It took a few minutes for everyone to load their meat, then Shelby Neighberger set the dehydrator at 145 degrees for seven hours. After the meat is dehydrated we will have great-tasting jerky. The Makin’ Bacon Livestock club isn’t just making bacon this time! We would like to thank Debbie Smith for all she does for us and a special thank you to Kyle Wren for teaching and allowing us to use his dehydrator.
By Katye Allred
